Proclaim by Word and Example

This sermon was preached for Sunday, August 27, 2023. The readings for this sermon were: Exodus 1:8-2:10,  Psalm 124, and  Matthew 16:13-20. If I told you that Great Britain’s Libby Clegg won gold in the 100 meter sprint with a new world record in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, Brazil, that’d be true on paper. But it wouldn’t be the full story. Libby Clegg is almost totally blind, so as is the practice in the Paralympic visual impairment events, Clegg runs her sprints completely blindfolded. She runs loosely bound at the hand to her guide, Chris Clarke. The video of them running is mesmerizing to watch - the two hurtle down the track completely in sync, stride for powerful stride - except for right at the end, the last split-second when Clegg throws herself forward over the line and Clarke pulls himself back. Clarke is Clegg’s eyes, but her speed is all hers. The win and the medal are hers technically, too, but anyone could see in the way the pair joyfully embrace at the en...

  This sermon was preached for Sunday, August 20, 2023 at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. The texts for this sermon were: Genesis 45:1-15, Matthew 15:10-28, and Psalm 133.  Back in June, at a vigil at the Enfield United Church of Christ, all the gathered folks stood to sing a hymn by Mark A. Miller that brought me to tears. It was a simple song, with a simple message - the song that the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Greg Gray, explained his church sang at every welcoming of a new member. It goes like this: “Draw the circle, draw the circle wide…No one stands alone, we stand side by side. Draw the circle wide, draw it wider still. Let this be our song, no one stands alone, standing side by side. Draw the circle wide.” The act of drawing a circle is powerful and sacred, and I think deeply ingrained. How many mammals instinctively form a circle around the young, the old, and the vulnerable to protect them from predators? We encircle those we care for to let them know they are loved and to ke...

  This sermon was preached for Sunday, August 13 at St. Mark's, East Longmeadow. The texts for this sermon were: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28, Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b, and Matthew 14:22-33. Googling around in the last couple of years during a brief health scare with one of my kids - I don’t remember which or when - I stumbled across a beautiful article from April 2019 , by a mother, Julie Kim, about her daughter, Izzy. Izzy was born unusually small and with a heart defect, so she had needed open heart surgery at just a few months old. Kim did her own seeking out for reassurance and support and ended up talking on the phone with a couple whose child had been through the same surgery and was now a rambunctious five year old. She reached out to a woman who had been through the surgery as an infant decades before – that person emailed her about her high school years as a feisty, sporty teenager. When Izzy’s surgery went well, Kim felt confident that her daughter’s future would, perhaps, loo...